Face to Face
While reading 3rd John this morning, verse eight caught my attention. “We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.”
The last phrase, so that we may work together for the truth, made me think of Idahope Christians Writers. Isn’t that what we’re all about? Working together to share gospel truth?
In order to work together, we must be hospitable. This is something ICW has excelled at in the past. We’ve been a caring, sharing group, and I know the tradition will carry forward. Kudos to our new board for their year-long efforts to revive and reinvent Idahope. They did this while maintaining our goal to spread truth through writing and support each other.
From the about ICW page: We foster community and creativity through bi-weekly, monthly and annual events. We pray for each other and share experience, encouragement and praise. We are a safe place for artists.
In addition to hospitality, we want to be like Demetrius (vs. 12), who was “well spoken of by everyone,” not like Diotrephes (vs. 9), “who loves to be first.” (See the entire chapter.)
Due to our diverse backgrounds, training, mindsets and personality quirks, none of us writes alike. The variety of writing styles and genre-focus in this group is astounding! Yes, we all want to excel at what we do; however, writing is not a competition (despite accolades and awards). We don’t need to be first. We just need to write the best we can at each stage of our writing journey. And never stop growing.
John ends his short letter by saying, “I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Emails and texts are nice, and the words “pen and ink” are like music to writers’ ears, but how wonderful to know we Idahopers can meet face to face again. Thank you, ICW board, for making in-person gatherings possible. See ya’ll soon!
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Beliefs represented by individual authors are not necessarily shared by all members of ICW.
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